Water, politics, crime dominate Monterey County news in 2012

If talk were water, the Peninsula's lengthy quest for a new water supply may have ended in 2012.

A lot of the year's news — in venues ranging from a criminal courtroom to scads of meeting rooms — dealt with the continued debate over ways to reduce pumping from the Carmel River in accord with a 1995 state order.

Since it was a presidential election year, there were plenty of political stories, too, though the Democrats' strength made California off-limits to serious campaigning by either Mitt Romney or Barack Obama. Only Vice President Joe Biden made a public campaign appearance in Carmel.

There was no shortage of crime news — from the grisly murder of a professor's ex-wife in Monterey to a mentally troubled Salinas man's matricide — but none approached the carnage visited upon Aurora, Colo., Newtown, Conn., and other communities that added to a swelling national atlas of gun violence, heartache and grief.

There was good news, too.

Tiger Woods returned to the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am after a 10-year absence.

One of the alleged killers of a Monterey student 15 years ago admitted being an accessory and sought "restorative justice" sessions with people who were close to the victim.

Fort Ord's back country became a new national monument.

The energy of Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews left thousands gleeful at the 55th Monterey Jazz Festival. But the Monterey Bay Blues Festival, which declared bankruptcy in September, probably ended a 27-year run.

Sadly, three obituaries of favorite otters at the Monterey Bay Aquarium — Toola, Joy and Mae — surfaced on the front page.

Here's a look at other top stories in 2012:

January

The body of Janet "Nene" Sorenson, a 71-year-old Salinas piano teacher, is found between San Juan Bautista and Watsonville. Her son Chistopher is arrested, but criminal proceedings are delayed for months for mental competency proceedings. He attempts suicide at the Monterey County Jail in December.

Six Peninsula cities form a new regional water authority to try to hurry along a new Peninsula water project, as three new project proposals centered on desalination plants north of Marina and in Moss Landing take center stage.

On Jan. 19, the first rainfall since Thanksgiving falls on Monterey County, though the weak front barely makes things soggy.

Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital reignites controversy over compensation of top executives by revealing that two departing officials received lump-sum payments of more than $1 million.

February

Salinas police say an assault-style rifle outlawed in California and stolen from the home of Salinas City Councilwoman Gloria De La Rosa was purchased at an Arizona gunshow.

York School graduate Benjamin Todd Jealous, president of the NAACP, urges students at York to pursue their dreams and get politically involved.

Phil Mickelson roars back from a six-stroke deficit to win the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, leaving Tiger Woods far back in the field.

Monterey County supervisors, facing petitions signed by more than 18,000 people, vote 4-1 to scrap plans for the Whispering Oaks business park-transit center at Fort Ord.

Also in February, the supervisors, on a 3-2 vote, give final approval to a small shopping center at Corral de Tierra Road and Monterey-Salinas Highway after more than a decade of debate and litigation.

Pit bull enthusiasts stage a march on South Main Street in Salinas with many of their dogs to counter negative images against the breed from three recent pit bull attacks.

County supervisors seek a merger with Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital, which spends months looking at potential affiliations before deciding to remain an independent hospital district.

Dianne Harrison, president of CSU Monterey Bay, is named the new leader at CSU Northridge. In May, Eduardo Ochoa, a veteran college administrator, takes the job as interim president at CSUMB.

City Manager Tony Altfeld is fired by the Marina City Council on a 3-2 vote after refusing to take compensation cuts demanded by the council. The city eventually cuts a $150,000 deal with Altfeld for severance pay.

The federal government announces that a new, $80 million military-veterans medical clinic will be built within The Dunes on Monterey Bay center in Marina.

Former Monterey mortgage broker David Nilsen is sentenced to eight years in federal prison for fraud in the massive collapse of his Cedar Funding investment company.

Fifty-three charges are filed against Gilbert Olivares, a former counselor at Salinas High School, whose office turned up sexually explicit videos of students. Police say there are at least 11 victims.

President Barack Obama declares 14,650 acres of federal land at Fort Ord as a new national monument, drawing praise from open-space advocates and the tourism industry.

California American Water formally files a new application for a Peninsula water supply project.

Angel Ruelas unexpectedly pleads guilty to first-degree murder in the death of teenager Kristopher Olinger 15 years earlier and seeks to meet with Olinger's half-brother as part of the "restorative justice" program. The trial proceeds against older brother Jacobo Ruelas Jr., who continues to maintain his innocence.

May

Capital One, less than a day after taking over HSBC's former credit card center in Salinas, announces it will close the 850-employee center by mid-2013.

Hartnell College hires Willard Lewallen as its new president. He succeeds retired president Phoebe Helm.

The state Coastal Commission approves a Pebble Beach Co. expansion plan calling for 90 new homes, a hotel and expansion of existing facilities. The action comes five years after the panel rejected a far bigger development with a new golf course.

Ryan Young, a butcher at Safeway in Del Rey Oaks, attracts national attention after being suspended from his job for aiding a pregnant customer who was being hit by her boyfriend. He wins reinstatement after several weeks of publicity.

A stolen cargo truck carrying $80,000 worth of musical instruments belonging to the North Monterey County High School band is recovered, along with the instruments, near San Juan Bautista.

Army Spc. Vilmar Galarza, a 2008 graduate of Everett Alvarez High School in Salinas, dies in Afghanistan in an attack with an improvised explosive device.

June

Salinas Deputy Police Chief Kelly McMillin, a 24-year veteran of the department, is sworn in as the city's new police chief after his selection by City Manager Ray Corpuz.

County Supervisor Jane Parker wins a second term in the 4th District by defeating Byrl Smith, whose late husband, Jerry, represented the district.

Vice President Joe Biden makes a campaign stop in Carmel, speaking to about 650 people packed into the Sunset Center.

The body of a rare Pacific sleeper shark, which typically live at great ocean depths, washes ashore at Asilomar State Beach.

The state Public Utilities Commission approves Cal Am's $83 million plan to remove the San Clemente Dam on the Carmel River, citing seismic safety and environmental benefits.

More than 30,000 young Central Coast residents without immigration documents may be eligible for work permits under a program announced by the Obama administration.

The value of Monterey County's agricultural output dipped below $4 billion in 2011 for the first time in three years. Low prices and poor weather are blamed.

July

The city of Monterey imposes a ban on plastic bags for retailers, joining Carmel and Big Sur in the environmental packaging move. Merchants can charge customers for paper bags.

Peninsula developer Nader Agha and Texas hotel developer H. Drake Leddy unveil a proposal for a large hotel on the Holman Block in Pacific Grove. In November, city voters deal the plan a potentially fatal setback by crushing proposed zoning changes.

A group of Monterey residents sues the city over low-energy LED streetlights installed by the city earlier in the year. They contend the lights are too bright and dangerous.

As the nation reels from a mass shooting at a Colorado theater, local residents learn the alleged shooter, James Holmes, attended elementary and middle schools in North County, where former classmates remembered him fondly.

Monterey's plan to build a permanent fence around a celebrated locomotive in Dennis the Menace Park creates strong pushback from the community. The train engine's future remains in limbo at year's end.

August

The widow of acclaimed San Francisco 49ers coach Bill Walsh received a monthly bill for $5,000 from Cal Am at her Pacific Grove home, triggering outcry over possible padding of water bills.

The Fort Ord Reuse Authority remains in the spotlight, as a group sues the agency alleging its base reuse plan consultant has a conflict because it is also the project manager for the controversial Monterey Downs residential-equestrian project.

A bill by Assemblyman Bill Monning, D-Carmel, to extend the life of FORA by six years passes the state Legislature to eventual approval by the governor.

Monterey activist and former planning commissioner Barbara Bass Evans, who fought to preserve the city waterfront, dies at 78.

Pacific Grove kicks off a campaign to try to raise $250,000 to rebuild the Kiddie Pool at Lovers Point. By December, more than $80,000 had been raised.

Morgan Stock, founder of the drama program at Monterey Peninsula College, dies at his Pebble Beach home at 93.

September

Tickets sell out in a day for a concert at Sunset Center in Carmel by Crosby, Stills and Nash.

A Seaside restaurant owner exchanges shots with two robbers, hitting one. Four suspects are arrested, including one taken to the hospital with a bulllet wound.

Cachagua residents protest heavy use of their community road for the planned demolition of the San Clemente Dam. At the end of the year, a lawsuit by neighbors is pending and a new transportation plan is proposed.

Lawrence Jones, 69, a finance professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, is arrested in Los Angeles and charged with murdering his ex-wife, whose dismembered body is found near Gilroy.

Longtime Salinas youth boxing coach Daniel Lujan pleads no contest to a charge of molesting a teenage girl for several years while training the young boxer.

Controversy erupts over new emergency radio towers proposed in the Huckleberry Hill neighborhood in Pebble Beach and Lewis Road area in North County. Pebble Beach residents file suit seeking more environmental review.

October

The hottest days of the year hit in early October, with the mercury reaching 104 in Carmel Valley and animal experts warning about heat stroke dangers to dogs.

A Salinas man shoots at two 17-year-old robbers in a tortilla bakery, killing one of the youths. Police refuse to identify the "Good Samaritan" shooter.

County officials announce plans for a $40 million expansion of the perennially crowded Monterey County Jail. The new wing would add 288 beds.

Mounting criticism of the Fort Ord Reuse Authority and Monterey Downs project — which includes a long-planned veterans cemetery in Parker Flats — leads to demand by a veterans group for a seat on the FORA board.

Former Salinas High baseball star Xavier Nady, signed by the San Francisco Giants in August, joins the team on an unlikely, thrilling ride to the World Series crown.

A state review panel shoots down a plan for a $49 million courthouse in Greenfield because of tight money.

Walter Tribley is hired as the new president of Monterey Peninsula College, succeeding Doug Garrison, who retires at the end of the year.

Outgoing majority members of the Marina Coast Water District board hold a series of special meetings in an effort to take up controversial issues before leaving office.

Former county water board member Steve Collins is ordered to stand trial after a lengthy preliminary hearing on dozens of charges related to his role as a consultant on the former regional water desalination project.

The two top civilian leaders at the Naval Postgraduate School, President Dan Oliver and Provost Leonard Ferrari, are ousted as three critical inspector general reports contend they turned the school away from its primary military mission.

Superior Court Judge Adrienne Grover is appointed to the 6th District Court of Appeal, where she replaces Justice Wendy Duffy, a former county judge.

December

Heavy rains send the Big Sur River and streams to high elevations, ushering in what will remain a water-logged month through the Christmas holiday.

The county and Cal Am reach a settlement over the former regional desalination project. The county recoups $4 million in costs and promises not to use an ordinance requiring public ownership of a desalination plant against Cal Am.

Other water-related moves during the month include a new leader for a proposed desalination plant in Moss Landing; the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District decides to look into a backup plan to Cal Am's; and Cal Am says its project won't be ready until 2017 at the earliest.

The Alisal Union School District touches off a community debate by naming a new school after 19th century historical figure Tiburcio Vasquez, who some regard as a bandit and killer while others see him as a pioneer civil rights champion for Latinos.

Seaside sues Sand City over the cutoff of formerly shared sales taxes from the Edgewater and Sand Dollar centers.

Sand City releases a draft environmental report on a proposed coastal resort, one of two the city has hoped to develop for years.

Marilyn Shepherd, superintendent of the Monterey Peninsula Unified School District, says she will retire at the end of the school year.